Action Manga is a popular genre that attracts a lot of readership. When we encounter an action scene, we expect to see a chain of events that will make us jump out of our seats. The adrenaline rush one gets while watching an action-packed scene is unmatched.
Most of us can relate to the characters involved and end up relating to them or putting ourselves in their shoes. Moreover, science has proved that action and fantasy escape people from their stressful lives. Our mind gets stressed and excited simultaneously, with his feats and defeats becoming ours.
Many consider action mangas to follow a generic storyline with either an overpowered or underpowered protagonist struggling against various odds and life-threatening situations.
Rest assured, some mangas brim with plot twists and have a unique storyline. Some action mangas are so diverse and have such great and compelling characters accompanied by excellent world-building and emphasis on values and important relationships people can’t help but indulge in binge reading.
Here’s a list of 15 action mangas that are guaranteed to have your nights booked:
15. Gangsta
A Japanese action manga series written and illustrated by Koshke, it features two utility men-for-hire assassins, Worick Arcangelo and Nicolas Brown. They go by the name ‘Handymen’. They take up any job the citizens of the city offer them.
The story takes place in the City of Ergastulum, which is laden with crime. Most of the population of the city comprises ‘twilights’. They are people with Superman strength and speed who constantly bully normal humans in the town.
The four most powerful families, the Corsica Family, the Monroe Family, the Christiano Family, and the Paulkee Guild, use them to assert dominance and maintain terror in the city. The action revolving around crimes happening in the city and the feud between major powers in the manga will most likely amuse you.
14. Fire Force
Written and illustrated by Atsushi Ohkubo, this manga is action-packed with various scenes featuring a great event that happened 50 years ago, The Great Cataclysm. Shinra Kusakabe is a pyrokinetic who can ignite his feet at will. For that, he is given the nickname ‘Devil’s Footprints’.
He was outcasted as a child for killing his mother and brother. As he grew up, he joined a Special Fire Force Company. Along with other pyrokinetics, he dedicates himself to ending these Infernal attacks.
However, during his journey, he learns that his mother and brother were killed because of White Clad, a doomsday cult. They were the reason behind all those infernal attacks.
Meanwhile, he also learns that they plan to repeat the Great Cataclysm. This manga has amazing action scenes, such as Company 8 vs the Infernal or Shinra vs Princess Hibana, which will keep the readers hooked.
13. Blood Lad
It is a series written and illustrated by Yuuki Kodama. The action manga revolves around Staz, a powerful and polar opposite of other vampires. While other vampires prey on humans, he is an Otaku. He loves reading manga, watching anime, and playing video games.
One day, a human named Fuyumi Yanagi gets stuck in a demon world as she wanders through portals. Seeing a human, Staz gets excited and wants to befriend her. However, she is attacked by a demon, and while Staz steps in to protect her, she is killed by a carnivorous plant and turns into a ghost.
As a result, they both embark on a journey to resurrect her. This action manga features various violent scenes and demons with grotesque appearances, making it readworthy.
12. Dorohedoro
It is a Japanese series written and illustrated by Q Hayashida. The story is set in The Hole, a city where there is a clash between humans and magic users. The Action Manga features these magic users disfiguring and abusing humans in many ways.
They further test their abilities and magic by practicing them on humans, making them their test subjects. The humans, however, have adapted to their ruthless ways.
Caiman and Nikaido, two extremely powerful humans, set foot on the street and slaughter these ruthless sorcerers by putting them in Caiman’s house as he is a human with a reptilian head. However, before eating the sorcerer, they ask one question, ‘what did the man inside say’?
The action-packed manga includes sorcerers chopping limbs off and cutting intestines. In return, Nikaido and Caiman keep slicing and chopping men, hammering their heads, and fighting them till their death.
11. Blue Exorcist
It is a dark fantasy and action manga series written and illustrated by Kazue Kato. The story revolves around Assiah, the human realm, and Gehenna, the demonic realm, and two young boys, Rin Okumura and his younger twin, Yukio Okumura.
Later in Rin’s life, he learns that Yukio and he are sons of satan. Their guardian, who he believed to be their father, Shiro Fujimoto, was an exorcist.
One day, he draws a demon-slaying sword, Kurikara, which restrains his demonic power as he sees his father die while protecting him. He gains powers that make him invincible, such as the ability to burn anything into flames, along with demonic features such as fangs and a tail.
To take his guardian father’s legacy forward, he enrolls himself with True Cross Academy to become an exorcist. He finds that Yukio is already a teacher there and a veteran. Thus, this action-packed manga features Rin’s journey to becoming an exorcist and slaying demons.
10. Claymore
Claymore, again, is a dark fantasy, action manga series written and illustrated by Norihiro Yagi.
The series revolves around female warriors called claymores, who are human-yoma hybrids meant to protect humans from Yoma. On the other hand, Yoma are shape-shifting creatures that feed on humans. Both Yoma and Claymore are powered by Yoki, a demonic energy.
It provides them superhuman strength and the ability to shape-shift. The Medieval island where the story is set is divided into 47 districts, each assigned its own Claymore. Claymores are ranked based on their Yoki Potential, strength, agility, leadership, and ability to sense their surroundings.
The action manga features claymores assigned to various districts, Clymores assigned to various districts, killing Yoma and saving the citizens.
9. Nabari No Ou
Written and illustrated by Yuhki Kamatani, this martial arts and supernatural-themed action manga features Miharu Rokujo, a student who finds everything irrelevant and is numb to the world around him. One day, he is chased by Ninjas and then saved by two other Ninjas. They tell him that his body holds the most powerful secret art in the Ninja World of Nabari.
One of the Ninjas vows to protect Rokujo till he becomes the ruler of Nabari. However, Rokujo is numb as he is not interested in the Ninja world and denies the offer to join the Basara ninja club.
Helpless, he changes his decision when he is approached by various ninjas coming after his life, seeing this as the only way to ensure his survival. Miharu holds great potential and is seen as the next ruler of Nabari. The action manga includes many ninja-ninja and ninja-samurai fights guaranteed to enthrall its readers.
8. Yu Yu Hakusho
This series is written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. The action manga features Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is hit by a car and killed while saving a child’s life. In the afterlife, a deal is offered to him by the son of the Underworld’s ruler king, Koenma.
He is put through a series of tests and returns to life by passing them. He becomes an underworld detective after he is revived and is put in charge of investigating supernatural activities in the demon world.
The manga series involves many adventures as Urameshi and his comrades solve mysteries. However, it brims with action, too, featuring various martial arts fights between the delinquents.
7. Choujin
Choujin is a supernatural, action manga written and illustrated by Shui Ishida. It was published on Shueisha’s Tonari no Young Jump website in May 2021 and in Weekly Young Jump from October 2021 to February 2022.
This manga features two boys, Azuma Higashi and his friend Tokio Kurohara. Higashi is great at fighting and holds a strong sense of justice. Moreover, he is an outstanding student and always gets good grades. On the other hand, Kurohara is the polar opposite of Higashi. He is an onlooker when Higashi fights and doesn’t fare well in class.
The place they live in, the Yamato prefecture, is devastated by humans with supernatural abilities. They are called the Choujins. The story features them becoming Choujins as they encounter one and are left with no choice other than joining them or dying. With all the blood splattering, violence, and gore, this action manga will keep you hooked.
6. Berserk
Berserk is an action manga written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Miura premiered a prototype of Berserk in 1988. The series began to feature in Hakusensha’s now-defunct magazine, Monthly Animal House. It was then replaced in 1992 by the semimonthly magazine Young Animal.
Guts calls himself the black swordsman and enters a small town demanding to fight with its ruler. The Band of the Hawk, a mercenary group, takes Guts in, and he continues to explore the world.
He develops close relationships with the group’s leaders, Griffith and Casca. Griffith then puts himself in a situation where he sacrifices his followers to become one of God’s hands and rule his kingdom.
Only Guts and his lover Casca can escape the “Eclipse” ritual. Marks attract evil, restless spirits, and other demons and beasts cover their bodies. Guts hardens his will to defy such a gruesome fate of death. He takes up the strong and mighty blade of Dragonslayer and embarks on a journey to kill Griffith.
This violent and Gory Action Manga was a finalist for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th installments of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 1998.
5. Gantz
Gantz is written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. It was published in Shueisha’s Seinen Manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from June 2000 to June 2013. Its chapters are collected in thirty-seven Tankōbon volumes. It features two young men falling into the trap of playing a deadly, semi-posthumous game.
Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato attempt to save a drunk man and die while saving him. They get hit by a subway train. They are transported to an apartment with many other people, which they cannot leave. They are then told that they are part of a deadly game.
In one corner of the room, there lies a large black sphere called Gantz. The Gantz opens up and reveals a bald man, a custom-fitting black suit, and weapons for the participants to use. The suits give them superhuman strength, speed, and stamina. They are then required to hunt and kill aliens to survive.
This action manga features extreme gore, violence, and nudity. It also includes drinking, smoking, dismemberment, and decapitation. This top-notch seinen manga is meant for readers above 18 years of age
4. Land of Lustrous
Land of the Lustrous is an action manga written and illustrated by Haruko Ichikawa. It was serialized in Kodansha in Monthly Afternoon magazine in 2012.
The story is set in the future, where the crystalline organisms called gems are the inhabitants of the world, which is destroyed by six meteors. They have an ongoing war with the Lunarians, who kill them to use them for decorations.
Phos is a young gem who wants to help her friends by being useful to them in the war. Phos then decides to improve their condition on her own and meets Cinnabar. Phos then decides to find a role that both gems can enjoy and a way in which she can be useful to protect her fellow gems.
3. Chainsaw Man
This action manga is written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto. The story revolves around Denji, who is stuck in a lifelong debt from the Yakuza and cannot repay it after his father dies.
He now works as a devil hunter accompanied by a dog named Pochita. Pochita is the chainsaw devil. The Yakuza make a deal with the zombie deal and kill Denji.
Pochita, being loyal to his master, enters a contract with Denji, reviving him as a human-devil hybrid, becoming the chainsaw man. However, he keeps one condition that Denji shows his dreams to him.
The action manga then features Denji killing all the Yakuza. He is approached by Governmental Devil Hunters led by Makima. Makima proposes he join his organization, to which he agrees. He seeks to kill the gun devil now who committed the greatest massacre in history!
2. Vagabond
This epic martial arts action manga is written by Takehiko Inuoe.
The story revolves around Shinmen Takezo, who is very aggressive and violent. He is called the Devil Child. Takezo runs away from home to join the Toyotomi army to fight the battle of Sekigahara against the Tokugawa clan along with his friend.
The Tokugawa clan won the battle, implementing Shogunate rule for nearly 300 years. Takezo and his friend survive the battle and move on different paths.
However, Takezo becomes a wanted criminal and has to keep under cover to avoid getting killed. This action manga includes several gory and violent scenes of the battlefield that make the readers hold their breath.
1. Shingeki No Kyojin
This action manga is written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama.
In this, mankind is under threat of gruesome creatures called titans. Humans who manage to survive live in areas protected by 3 extraordinarily high walls named Maria, Sina, and Rose.
Fast forward to 100 years, Citizens in the walls have only heard the tell tales of titans but have never seen one before. One day, a giant colossal titan appears and destroys Wall Maria, letting more titans in and making chaos all over.
The protagonist, Eren, along with his sworn sister Mikasa and his friend Armin, swears to exterminate all the Titans after seeing his mother getting killed.
However, as the story progresses, he comes across various facts regarding the origin of Titans, making him want to destroy humanity. It also depicts titans destroying and decapitating humans. Also, humans from the survey corps precisely fought these titans till their last breath. This action-packed manga is an absolute cynical roller coaster.
Honorable Mentions
Strawberry Cake & Mont Blanc by Azuma Tesshin
Ichigo Cake to Mont Blanc by Azuma Tesshin
The Pervert Next To Me by Kizuka Kazuki
My Childhood Friend is Strong
